People Are Willing To Go To Extreme Lengths To Retrieve Their Stolen Smartphones

People are willing to shell out a ton of cash and potentially put
themselves in danger to retrieve their stolen smartphones, a new
study from Lookout Mobile Security has found.

According to Lookout, which worked with IDG Research to conduct
the study, between 50% of phone theft victims would pay $500 to
get their devices back.

What's more, one-third of theft victims would pay $1,000 to
retrieve their stolen smartphones, and 68% of the polled victims
would put themselves in some sort of danger to regain their
handset.

It's not the device itself that's so valuable to those victims,
but the data stored on those smartphones, as Lookout notes. This
includes anything from photos to videos, contacts, music, apps,
and banking information.

The survey also found that 44% of smartphones were stolen because
owners had forgotten them in a public setting, and 14% of devices
were taken from a car or house that was burglarized. Only 11% of
victims had a smartphone stolen off their person.

According to Lookout, phones are most commonly stolen in
restaurants and nightclubs (16% and 11%, respectively), while
only 5% are stolen off the street.

Lookout Mobile Security

IDG Research and Lookout fielded the survey to respondents in the
United States, United Kingdom, France, and Germany. The results
are based on 2,403 responses from participants who said they have
had their smartphone stolen at some point.

Smartphones have become increasingly attractive for thieves over
the years. According to
Consumer Reports, more than 3 million handsets were stolen in
2013. Unsurprisingly, smartphone theft has been especially
rampant in large cities, with Consumer Reports writing that theft
has increased by 26% in Los Angeles since 2011. Smartphone
robberies were also up 23% in San Fransisco in 2013, and 18% of
all grand larcenies in New York City last year involved Apple
products.

Los Angeles yoga instructor
Sarah Maguire's story provides a perfect example of the risks
people are willing to take to retrieve their smartphones. After
she used Find My iPhone to track down her stolen iPhone's
location, she and her roommate headed to his house to retake
their smartphones, The New York Times reported last week.

California State Senator Mark Leno has been trying to address
smartphone theft with an initiative that has been nicknamed the
"kill switch bill." The effort would require all phones in
California to be preloaded with anti-theft software that would
completely shut down a device once it's been reported stolen.
California senators recently shot down the initiative.